Children Change Everything
by IRabuYou
Summary: AU story of England as an adopting father to a baby!China.
1. Chapter 1

Waiting was never something fun to do. Especially if after the wait came something you desired so very badly. The butterflies, the sweaty palms, the racing heartbeats, things just increasing your growing anxiety and heightening your anticipation. It's a distinctive feeling.

And right now, a young man with messy blonde hair named Arthur was experiencing this feeling.

All his life, he had wanted to become a father. Arthur always loved kids, not inappropriately like his next door neighbor Francis, but in a soft, gentle way. He loved to ruffle the soft hair on top of toddlers' heads, hold babies and feel their soft skin, and just have a goofy time with the older ones, the ones who would later roll their eyes at his childish antics and tell him to knock it off. Even if they didn't like him, he would always like them.

However, Arthur was not a very agreeable person. Quite a few times before had he screwed up relationships because of his words, his actions, or his generally unfriendly demeanor. Because of this, he lost every chance to ever get far enough in the game for marriage, or even engagement.

He didn't care. Those girls didn't know what they gave up. Or so he told himself.

But, Arthur had come to a point in his life where he had grown tired of pointless dating. He was twenty eight years old. He wanted a child now. His final option would have to be adoption.

_"Whoa, you're adopting?" His younger brother Alfred exclaimed when he first heard of the news."That's amazing! You have any idea where you might want to look?"_

_"I'm...I'm not quite sure." Arthur had faltered. "All I know is that I'm adopting. Ok? Don't rush me, you twat."_

_"Sorry, sorry. I'm just as excited as you are. It's a big deal!" Alfred leaned back, his blue eyes bright. "Wow, just think, I'm gonna be an uncle!"_

_"It's 'going to,' you git." Arthur reached over from where was was sitting and took a swat at Alfred, trying to hide his growing grin._

_Alfred flinched in surprise, but took it in stride._

_"Hey, why so abusive, Artie?" Alfred laughed. "Are you sure child services is going to accept you with that kind of behavior?"_

_"Git, you're an adult!"_

Arthur often thought of that chat. It was when he realized that this was what he wanted to do.

He didn't realize adoption was such a lengthy proccess, though. He first had to consider where he might want to adopt. Someplace in America, where he was currently residing? In England, his homeland? Or some foreign country, thousands of miles away, with different customs, traditions, and languages, but with children in need all the same?

He chose the last option. Something tugged inside him whenever he thought of children far away in need. It misted his eyes whenever he thought of it. He had to go through with it.

Many hours of sifting through pictures of children, all cute but not holding any special sort of feeling in his heart, he came across something. It was a picture of a little boy born in rural China. The boy's mother had been sexually assaulted by another man, and her whole family disowned her for it. Unable to care for her newborn, she put him up for adoption, hoping for a better life for her child.

Arthur spent the longest time looking at the boy. He was a beautiful baby, pale skin with chubby cheeks, fuzzy dark hair and almond shaped eyes.

Decision making had come to a close after that.

So after all that, and many more hours of paperwork, he was put on a waiting list. And then he waited.

That was almost a year ago.

Now, he was in the waiting room of the adoption center. He had flown in a couple hours ago. He was ready to see his son. He was ready to accept the responsibility of fatherhood. He was ready for anything in store.

Except waiting. That was the one thing he was hoping to avoid.

Arthur sighed and checked his watch. It was about four in the afternoon. He tried to think of what time it might be back at home in New York, where Alfred was. Should he call and find out?

"Mr. Kirkland, stop fidgeting. I symphathize with your excitement, but you must calm yourself down." His lawyer Xiang scolded, casting a glance at the blonde.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, I'll calm down." Arthur replied hastily, trying to slow down the tapping of his foot. It had become sort of a nervous tick within the hour.

"Please do so, because I see a very special someone coming right now."

Arthur's heart almost stopped as he saw a woman with shining black hair coming across the room, the definite clicks of her heels sounding sharper the closer she came. In her arms was his dream, now eight months old, seemingly unaware of what was happening.

She stopped in front of the two and began speaking rapid Mandarin to Xiang. He responded just as quickly and gestered to Arthur. He heard a mention of his name, and the woman nodded.

Finally, she turned to him.

"Ni hao." She had a fluid voice that was gentle and melodious. Arthur immediately felt embarrassed for his lack of refreshing on Chinese the night before out of restlessness.

"N-Ni hao." He replied, trying to keep the tremor in his voice to a minimum. The room suddenly got too warm for his liking. He wasn't sweating or blushing, was he?

She understood all too well where he was coming from. Even if her English wasn't fluent, her heart was in the right place. "Welcome to our country. This...this is Wang Yao." She shifted her glance to Yao. The little boy held no interest in what was going on.

Now was the time for heart stopping. Slowly reaching out, Arthur tapped the baby's arm, testing to see if it really was a dream. He received a strange look from Xiang as he did this.

The arm was silky smooth, and squishy, as a baby's arm should be. He ran more of his fingers across the boy. Still smooth.

Arthur held his arms open, trembling as he felt the boy being placed in his arms. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real.

Something squirmed. Arthur looked down at the boy, wondering what was the matter.

Brown eyes peeked out, a brilliant shade that could have been mistaken for gold. The brown eyes were greeted with Arthur's own green ones. There was a long stare, and a long silence.

The little one didn't care too much for this. Snuggling up to the bigger body, he put his head down on Arthur's shoulder and closed his eyes.

Arthur had prepared himself for this, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fight the tears and began to cry, right there in front of the woman who had brought this boy out and Xiang, who stood there with his regular stoic expression. Sure, it was an awkward situation to be in, but Arthur didn't care. He was now a real father.

"Oh, Yao, do you have any idea how I've been longing to hold you?" He whispered, laughing despite his steadily spilling tears and placed a kiss atop the slumbering baby's head.

"I love you." And with that, Arthur rocked his new child back and forth, singing sweet songs and of better days to come.

* * *

**This is my first real attempt at fanfiction, so I've got a lot to learn. Please give me some feedback, I love hearing from people. ;w;**

**This is a little idea that I just wanted to play with. I might turn this into a little series of vignettes. So if you have anything to say, or you would like to see more, please drop a line. 3**

**Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

After spending a few days exploring the wonders of the dazzling, exciting city of Shanghai with Xiang and his new baby, Yao, it was time for Arthur to return home to the remoteness of upstate New York. While he would always remember his life changing trip to China, he wondered about whether or not Yao would even blink at the mention of his homeland later in life.

He was so little now, just a pudgy baby with a kissable face and a snuggable body. He would soon grow up to be a fine young man. The years always went by so fast...

"You're such an old man, Artie!" Alfred snickered when Arthur poured out his feelings to him over the phone. He proceeded to keep chewing on a fry before speaking again. "Can't say that's a bad thing, though. You've taught me well over the years. I have no doubt that you will raise this kid to be fantastic."

"You twat," Was what Arthur wanted to say, but his lower lip quivered and his words became mangled. Instead he sniffled and managed a watery laugh.

"See, the baby's bringing out the better side of you! You better bring him over to my place so I can show him how heroic I am."

"You and your stupid superheroes." Arthur was beginning to regain his composure, and his usual rough and tumble mask. "Fine, I'll bring Yao over the day after tomorrow. Is that ok?"

"It's super! I'll see you then, bro!" Alfred shouted merrily, and then hung up without waiting for Arthur to bid his goodbyes. Just like Alfred.

"Hey there little buddy!" Alfred cooed, pinching Yao's tiny tones. Yao himself responded with a scrunched up face and curled his enticing toes, hoping to shoo away his annoying uncle.

"He's a smart one, isn't he." Arthur remarked, smirking at Alfred's enthusiam. "He knows that you're just a big kid who is too conceited for his own good."

"Hey now, I don't appreciate that." Alfred flicked England's insults off and leaned over his baby nephew, who was lying down on his bed, and resumed his cooing. "I'm Alfred. I'm your uncle. Do you know that?"

Yao instead reached out for the tip of Alfred's ahoge and tugged onto it. Alfred yelped in surprise, causing Yao to giggle with delight and tug harder.

"This kid is stronger than he looks." Alfred winced, holding his forehead which now tingled with sensations of pain. He scooted away from the kid to safer surroundings.

"That's my boy." Arthur grinned and ruffled Yao's fluffy raven locks.

Yao made a "goo" noise and began kicking his socked feet in the air. He was tired of the useless bickering between the adults. He was hungry.

"Hang on, sweet pea." Arthur realized his boy's demanding signals, and pet him on his tummy, trying to reassure Yao that food would be coming shortly. "Alfred, watch the baby while I make him lunch."

"You? Make lunch? Are you sure you can't just get us some take-out or something?" Alfred diverted his attention from the boy to make a horrified face at Arthur. "Dude, this kid won't be so cute anymore if he throws up on my bed."

"GIT! I brought the baby's food along. I figured I'd make lunch for the two of us as long as I'm here, though."

"Oh, no, that's even worse." Alfred shook his head rapidly, making it very clear that he did not want Arthur to cook, or even come within 5 feet of the kitchen's linoleum floors.

"What do you want me to do, then?"

"Nothing." Alfred replied, taking his older brother by the shoulders and staring at him directly in the eyes. "Look, you're my guest, right? I'll just call for takeout and you can spend time with your precious kid. That's what you really want to be doing, right? Not listening to me and my rambles. So just sit back, relax, and have a bonding moment. All I need from you now is to tell me what you want."

When the blue eyed blonde had skipped happily out the room to complete his quest in time for lunch, and when Yao had been fed, Arthur was finally able to collapse on the bed and heave a large sigh. It felt good to rest, and his aching bones thanked him for it.

Arthur couldn't fall asleep, much as he wanted to. There was an eight month old that needed an eye on him at all times.

Grunting as he pulled himself into an upright position, Arthur wondered what Yao felt like doing. The kid was alert most of the time, especially when it was time to go to sleep. As troublesome as that was at 4AM, he would always comply to his son's wishes. Sometimes sacrifies needed to be made, if you wanted to make your kids happy.

"So," Arthur started, causing Yao to take his eyes off the ceiling for a moment in order to heed his daddy's words. "What now, kid?"

Arthur wasn't quite sure Yao knew what that meant, because Yao responded with lifting his fuzzy feet in the air and kicking them.

He sighed. "Besides aerobic excersizes on your back."

Suddenly, Arthur got an idea. He remembered back in the days when Alfred was a baby, he used to love to play "Peek-A-Boo." Alfred would squeal in hilarity when Arthur pretended to disappear and would up the volume of his squeals a notch when his big brother reappeared.

It had been a while, but it was a fun game all the same.

Arthur inched his way over to his baby, and stared him down. Yao's eyes searched the big man's face in search of a motive. Yao was a curious child. He wanted to know what would happen next.

Arthur covered his face with his hands.

Yao stared back up, wide eyed.

A crosseyed Arthur made a silly face reminiscient of Alfred's comical expressions and burst through the wall that was his hands. He yelled out, "Peek-A-Boo!"

Yao just kept staring. What in the world was his father trying to do?

Arthur was taken aback a bit by his son's reaction. So he tried again.

"Peek-A-Boo! Peek-A-Boo, Yao!" He upped his performance even more, acting more like an idiot than Alfred by now.

Yao tilted his head a bit, still not impressed.

Arthur was confused. Alfred had loved it so much. Why wasn't his own child laughing as happily as Alfred did?

"PEEK-A-BOO!" By now Arthur was pleading, begging, anything. He had become desperate.

Yao cracked a smile.

Finally something. "PEEK-A-BOOOOO~." Arthur tried, changing his voice so he would sound more like a monster. It seemed that Yao liked a raspier quality to the voice when playing this game.

Yao began to giggle.

"PEEK-A-BOO. PEEK-A-BOO. PEEK-A-BOOOOOO~!" Arthur sang loudly, making animated expressions and really getting into his groove now.

The baby boy was in hysterics now, laughing just as loudly as Arthur's terrible singing. It continued like this for a while, until Alfred burst the door open with a shocked look planted on his face.

"ARTHUR! What are you doing? You sounded like you were dying or something!"

Arthur was having too much fun to care about what his younger brother had to say. "Alfred, you've missed out on so much fun! Isn't that right, Yao?" He turned to his kid.

The boy had tired himself out from all the fun and games, and was napping quietly, the little heave of his chest moving up and down systematically, yet softly.

Alfred didn't see what the point was. "Kid must be bored out of his mind to be sleeping while you're trying to entertain him."

Arthur shook his head, and didn't offer any words. Instead he brought his boy close, and cuddled him, smiling nostalgically. Alfred would never understand. You could only truly appreciate the moment if you were there.

* * *

**Just a small sequel to some stupid fic I made a long time ago. ;/;**

**This was also for Kouchagumi's 1/22 IggyChu day! I didn't have a beta reader this time because she was busy and such, so this is about two months old or something. Hopefully it doesn't suck so hard. ;/;**

**I'd be very grateful if you even took the time to look!**

**Well, I'm rambling now, so I hope you enjoyed, and Happy IggyChu day!**


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